Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

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www.firmreferral.com is a website dedicated to helping consultants find legitimate job opportunites while also helping companies find the best consulting help available.

Your line, " FirmReferral is a consultancy brokerage site.... ", totally confused me at first; I had to read it 3 times to understand what you were saying.

The center box, " What`s going on .... " , and the page it leads to with the graphics all over it, I just totally don`t get it. What`s the purpose?

3 criteria for a search .... wouldn`t it be easier with just 2 ( category and state )? If someone mistypes something in the first box, will it take that into consideration, or just give empty results?

Also, there is no way to know how many jobs/openings or whatever are even on your site; if you had something like "Our site currently has XXX number of positions available", then users would know up front they aren`t on a wild goose chase if there really isn`t much there.

The media page locked up my browser ( Firefox ) for about 10 seconds.

The menu stinks. Between the "Consultant Site" and "Post a Job", they both lead to different "Home" pages, and if this is supposed to be 2 different sites, that is even more confusing.

I got a glimpse of a $10.00 fee somewhere, didn`t catch at first who pays it or when, then couldn`t fine that same info again when I went back to look for it.

Your index page ( one of them, anyway ) has a td cell above your meta tags.

Simplify your menu, clarify your language/text, add what is helpful for users and lose what isn`t.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Hey there :-)

One thing that totally bugs me on all these kinds of search sites is the drop-down menu for categories. Developers apparently either think they`re omniscient, or there`s some sort of master template everyone uses.

For example, I thought I`d search for "Business Process Analyst," or just plain "Business Analyst," and there isn`t a category. Then I thought I`d look for "Technical Writing," with the same disappointment.

If you want consultants to use your site, then lose the categories of consultants completely. Let them determine what they do, what they call it, and let their clients search based on loose logic. (It`s one of the reasons I think places like Monster.com will eventually collapse.)

A better idea would be to have listings in a browsable way. Over time, you might categorize them by ZIP code or State, or some other VERY general criteria. But as Webline says, people will want to see that there`s a lot of activity right away.

The little pictures to the left and right of the main page heading, "reasons to use..." serve no purpose. Either make them bigger and integrate them into the page, or just get rid of them.

Additionally, having center-justified "bullet" points looks weird and doesn`t usually work all that well. What`d be cool would be to make each point a link to a different "view" of your database. I know....a lot of work, but it`d still be pretty cool, wouldn`t it? :-)

The big issue is to differentiate between consultants and freelancers. Suppose I`m a systems engineer but I`m consulting as a project manager. That`s entirely different from a freelance writer offering content here and there.

Since you have the big "Employers Here" arrow (it should be clients, not employers, by the way---the IRS views consultants differently from employees), why not also have a "Consultants There" arrow? That would be the place for a consultant to put up their bio, accomplishments, and "elevator pitch."

Finally, I`d like to see ALL the opportunities in Illinois (or some State), regardless of what category you think I should limit myself to, y`know? That goes back to the browse option, which I think would help a lot.

All in all, it`s okay at the moment, but needs work. One thought here would be for you to develop a flowchart of your site (not the same as a site map). Put yourself into the shoes of a complex consultant and see what happens. An example off the top of my head would be a hydraulics engineer looking for consulting work on flood management. Another would be someone skilled at renewable energy sources, consulting on how to take a building (or site) off the power grid.